Week 38—Thursday Ephesians 4:14-16
Ephesians 4:14-16
A FOURFOLD EXPRESSION
The Christian gospel commands you. But what it commands is what our human nature demands—demands for its fulfillment. This passage shows this vividly: “The aim and object of this command is the love which springs from a clean heart, from a good conscience, and from faith that is genuine. Through falling short of these, some people have gone astray into a wilderness of words” (1 Tim. 1:5-6, NEB). Now note how the total person is fulfilled: Love springs from a clean heart (the affectional nature), from a good conscience (the volitional nature), and from a faith that is genuine (the intellectual nature). The whole person made up of feeling, will, and intelligence is expressed in love. And if it were then it would be perfectly fulfilled. And psychology would agree. For life would agree. Nothing could be more healthy than a personality expressing itself by a clean heart, a good conscience, and a genuine faith—expressing itself in love.
Expressing itself in love would mean that the person is outgoing. The tyranny of self-preoccupation is broken. The person who is outgoing in love is a healthy person and especially healthy if he or she includes emotions, will, and intellect. To be loving in emotions only may produce the sentimentalist in religion. To be loving in will alone may produce the person of morality in religion, but not very tender and sensitive. To be loving in mind alone may produce the intellectualist in religion. But loving in the total person—emotion, will, mind—makes the most well-rounded, symmetrical person imaginable.
But when this kind of Christian expression is bypassed, or as the verse puts it—“Through falling short of these, some people have gone astray into a wilderness of words”—then it is the Word become word. This passage when acted upon is the Word become flesh, but to fall short of it, or depart from it means “a wilderness of words”—the Word become words.
O Lord Christ, your commands set us free. Our humanisms apart from you send us into a wilderness of words. Save us from the wilderness of words which try to cover up our barrenness. You are the Son who sets us free—free indeed. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Not a wilderness of words for me, but the Way!